Zel Zlo Zukolec
::"Who put birdseed on this altar?!" Prideful, hot-tempered, but overall well-meaning, Zel Zlo Zukolec swears fealty to the goddess Oreltak and serves as something of a more martially-inclined member of the Ravens of Oreltak. In her eyes, she's a defender of the weak, using herself as a shield to protect those who can't protect themselves and resorting to force when no other option remains. However, despite this somewhat pacifistic worldview, her pride and temper -- particularly when she perceives some gross injustice being unconfronted -- tend to get her involved in more volatile confrontations all the same. She abhors authority that won't help people, and she thinks little of taking matters into her own hands when the people who "should" be doing something won't do it themselves. Background Born and raised in the city of Zukolec in Milastrov, Zel grew up with two fathers and one sister -- Ločin Zlo Zukolec, Edlnost Zlo Sprared, and Oreltak Istrat Osel. While she overall had a good relationship with her parents, Zel regularly fought with Osel, and their opinions on virtually anything diverged more and more as they got older. Both of them came to worship the god Oreltak just as Ločin did; however, Zel found more of a kinsmanship with the pacifistic Ravens of Oreltak, and Osel came to follow the often cruelly pragmatic Owls of Oreltak, much to their fathers' disapproval. Feeling vindicated by their parents' feelings towards Osel's choices, Zel's already-low opinion of her sister only grew worse, and she became more assured that hers was the correct path. Zel lived in the Ravens' temples from when she was twelve to when she was eighteen and formally named an acolyte for the Ravens of Oreltak. Though she moved temples quite regularly to learn different aspects of the religion and, eventually, also visiting temples held by the Hawks of Oreltak to better learn how to fight, Zel was never far from Zukolec and regularly visited her parents. When she couldn't visit, she'd regularly write to them to let them know about how her lessons were progressing. What she didn't tell them, however, was some of the vigilante work she got up to with the Hawks of Oreltak. The Ravens of Oreltak didn't necessarily forbid violence; it was frowned upon and seen as a last resort. For Zel, who saw more of her fellow trainees in the temple take pacifistic routes even in the face of crime and injustice so nearby their temples, it was something that someone had to do. The inciting incident for this attitude in particular was finding a beaten traveller on the steps of the temple one night when she was fifteen. Though the traveller was nearly dead, none of the Ravens were preoccupied with stopping the perpetrator from doing this again to someone else. Because Zel doubted any Ravens would help her, she reached out to some of her friends among the Hawks -- Jesech Sokola, Osoba Zlo Mien, and Lietzovak. Together, the four of them tracked down the criminal and turned him in before he could flee the area. Drunk on their own success, they continued to pursue this kind of vigilantism, growing increasingly more confident of their own righteousness and dismissive of any rules or laws that indicated they should stay out of matters such as this. To this day, Zel maintains her vigilantism streak, though her friends among the Hawks are curiously absent from her life. Category:Characters Category:Ealdremen Player Characters Category:Novaspark